Child Porn Smackdown in 12 Countries

Law enforcement agencies attacked a child pornography ring and arrested more than 500 people in 12 countries across Europe and Latin America. Over 20,000 video, photo, and audio files were distributed through a Spanish-language chat room. It was reported that images included "highly aggressive" depictions of very young children.

The investigation was prompted by a complaint filed on January 19 by a Spaniard in the northwest Galicia region who reported seeing graphic pornography involving very young children in a chat room.

Police started monitoring the chat room to determine who offered material for it and in just 15 days identified more than 900 addresses from which people logged onto the site.

Pedophiles were arrested in Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Chile, Argentina, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay. Eurojust, a European law enforcement body, and Ibered, a similar agency operating in Latin America, coordinated the operation.

Noticeably missing from the list of countries is the United States. I wonder why since I'm certain that the U.S. has at least a fair share of the world's pedophiles.